Healthcare IT Needs A ‘People Side’ Too

Searching through the programme for the World of Health IT (WHIT)
conference and exhibition, which takes place in Vienna from 22-25 October, what
stands out is the evident commitment on behalf of the organisers to engage with
as many stakeholders as possible.

The 2006 event in Geneva drew around 2,000 attendees and was
certainly a success by any standards, except the relative lack of ‘front-line
soldiers’ to be found.

This will not be the case in Vienna. The whole 2007 event focuses
on the impact of technology on healthcare delivery, the successful
implementation of which lies in large part with the teams on the ground.

The nurses’ symposium is of particular moment. Because, if the
people at the business end of patient care are unable or unwilling to embrace
the new technologies, then the road forward will come to a sudden end somewhere
up a dark alley.

Although there is undoubtedly some measure of resistance from
among the old guard in the nursing profession, most practitioners now accept
that technology is the way forward, whether that technology be in the form of
electronic patient records or, say, online prescriptions.

Nurses and Healthcare IT

The moderator at the nurses’ symposium will be Nicholas Hardiker,
a Senior Research Fellow at the Salford Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and
Collaborative Research at the University of Salford, in the UK.

Hardiker has a background in nursing, has published widely. He
finds the symposium a particularly welcome event, as the key issues within
healthcare IT, as he sees them, are quality, efficiency and the passing on of
knowledge.

He says: “Globally, there are issues over patient safety and the
cost of medical errors through the prescribing of medicines. This has been
measured, comprehensively in the US, and can certainly be improved. IT can
speed up the access to medical details, for example.

But it’s not all plain sailing, concedes Hardiker. “Yes, there are
problems. Many nurses have not grown up with IT and there can be a degree of
resistance. But let’s be honest, I hear some nurses say ‘I don’t like or
understand computers,’ yet they walk out of the door and start texting on their
mobile phones.

“There needs to be proper training, of course. But it’s not as though
the nurses can’t get to grips with new technology. I’m more inclined to believe
that if a system doesn’t work as efficiently as it could, it’s down to the
software, not the users being incapable.

Nurses adapted and got on with the job – crucially, in an enhanced
and more efficient way. But it’s fair to say that there’s more trepidation in
the profession than there is in the population at large, while things are still
embryonic.”

Management is the Key

Hardiker argues that the bulk of training is required to teach
users proper IT management, rather than training nurses to use simple
programmes, which is relatively easy.

“There’s a ‘people side’ to healthcare IT,” he insists. “We need
leadership at all levels within the profession. Within the whole health
industry, budget-holders included. It’s not just a top-down issue. The key question,
talking specifically in the case of nurses here, is how can nurse leaders
influence the process of IT introduction and usage? That’s what needs to be
addressed, and will be at the symposium.”

Speakers at the event, such as Professor Doctor Ursula Hübner,
from the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück, Germany, will be taking
up arms on behalf of healthcare IT.

Doctor Hübner highlights medical expiry dates as a practical
example of its effective use: “Databases have largely made errors in this area
a thing of the past – quite simply, clinicians now have far more immediately
accessible knowledge on the tools with which they are working.

“And that can only be for the good.” The other two symposia are
aimed at physicians and, not by accident, leaders and leadership. Towards the
end of the sessions, which run concurrently, there will be a chance for each
group to discuss the challenges and solutions with the others.

That represents leaders and persuaders on all levels and from all
areas of the medical profession. As Hardiker puts it: “The ‘people side.”

For further details on the three-day programme at the 2007 World
of Health IT Conference and Exhibition, go to